PaulF: Well, that's sort of a sticking point for many of us non-believers: If one's "spiritual" life is eternal, what is the "sacrifice" in death? Eternal (spiritual) life turns death into just another signpost on the road of life. Much like kidney stones or childbirth, whatever trauma is experienced will ultimately become fleeting and temporary.
Why shouldn't God send his son to Earth to die...over and over again, if necessary? Corporeal death would be absolutely meaningless to an eternal spiritual creature.(Moved over from another thread)
The death of Jesus wasn't meaningless from the view point that it demonstrated to humans that physical death isn't the end. Also, the ultimate death to a Christian is eternal separation from God, through sin. At that moment on the cross, Christ shouldered the burden of the world's sin. He was, during that time, separated from God. THAT was his sacrifice, though temporary. This separation is why he asked God when he was on the cross why He has forsaken Him (ie abandoned/rejected/deserted/etc). The physical death, as you point out, is meaningless, especially to a deity; the demonstration of death's meaningless-ness is, well, what gives the event meaning.
Through our faith in Jesus and faith in God, our sins will be forgiven, and we will no longer be separated from God.
In relation to the ET life thread, I'd add ... so what if God created other intelligent life in some other galaxy? What if Jesus has done as you said and dies over and over throughout the universe for different groups? What if other creations didn't eat from their forbidden tree and are blissfully living with God among them?
I can't pretend to fully understand the vastness of either the universe or God (as both an amateur astronomer and Christian). Nor can I place limits on either due to my feeble understanding....
I don't think whether other life exists matters. I don't think we'll ever have definitive answers. It matters not to my life or my faith other than as an interesting intellectual exercise.
-rvb